In recent years, rising and volatile energy prices have had a profound effect on all industries, not least the telecommunications sector, which is now also challenged by rapidly rising traffic volumes and massive subscriber uptake. Energy concerns coupled with the fact that telecom operators are among the largest electricity consumers in many countries are adding to the importance of improved energy performance in the radio network.
Spectrum represents one of the most important resources in wireless radio technology. For example, substantial benefits flow when different regions use the same frequency bands for the same purpose. Often in each country the different frequency bands are sold in so called “spectrum auctions”, meaning that the auctioned spectrum goes to the highest bidders. These high bidders do not necessarily make full use of the acquired spectrum. For example, radar and military applications seldom use all of the spectrum allocated to those applications. Even telecommunication operators often do not use all of their allocated spectrum, e.g., because of selective deployment of certain radio access technologies, such as those associated with higher-data rate services.
In the future networked society, more and more of everyday life will be dependent upon the availability of high-capacity wireless technology. This inevitability implies that more and more business opportunities will arise from the deployment of wireless technology. However, it is recognized herein that many of these diverse business cases will not be lucrative enough to permit or justify the purchase of required spectrum. Consider, for example, the emerging machine type communication, MTC, markets in which potentially large numbers of devices need to communicate. These devices may be situated in remote locations, e.g., in industrial areas with few humans, and will typically use Public Land Mobile Networks, PLMN, for accessing the corresponding MTC service provider networks and systems.
Although the availability of wireless networks using standardized spectrum and radio access technologies adds meaningful value, e.g., such as promoting tourism and business development, the capital expenditures needed to build out such systems far exceed, at least initially, the revenue available from an initially small subscriber base. Such areas thus may be underserved because the spectrum owners lack the threshold level of economic incentive to make the initial build-out investments.
As another example, consider the case where large groups of people congregate, such as at concerts, sporting events, etc. The venue owners may not be interested in partnering with any specific communications network operator. Further, the congregated people will generally represent a diverse set of network operator affiliations, and it is very difficult to install operator-specific equipment for all or even most of the represented operators. Further, the energy usage is undesirably high for multi-operator base stations that persistently operate with multiple carriers over a range of frequency spectrums or bands associated with the different operators.
While these issues might suggest an opportunity for the venue owner or another third party to provide communication services at least within the confines of the involved premises, it is recognized herein that a primary obstacle to doing so is the lack of available licensed spectrum. For example, while the use of WiFi networks over limited coverage areas is a well-known approach, that approach lacks the capacity, flexibility and other advantages that flow from the use of 3 GPP or other standardized wide-area network spectrum.